Originally posted by SKinLaB
Do you find it racist to call someone from Britain a Brit, or an Australian a Aussie, or someone from Afghanistan a Afghani, or someone from the U.S a
barbarian?

Is the above a racist comment? No. Funny maybe, but not racist.

Originally posted by Grumble
Besides, it is not a race (even if you accept the concept of race), it is a nationality.

Bingo! We have a winner. You want to belittle the perniciousness of racism, ascribe it to situations where it doesn't apply. When every little
country specific language quirk can suddenly be considered necessarily globally racist, then you end up minimizing the term to where it isn't ever
meaningful. It becomes as irrelevant as... an apostrophe on plural's.

The abbreviation Paki acquired offensive connotations in the 1960s when used by British tabloids to refer to subjects of former colony states in
a derogatory and racist manner. In modern British usage "Paki" is typically used in a derogatory way as a label for all South Asians, including
Indians, Afghans and Bangladeshis. To a lesser extent, the term has been applied as a racial slur towards Arabs and other Middle Eastern-looking
groups who may resemble South Asians. During the 60's many emigrants were also dubbed as "black" to further segregrate them from the white
community. Some would say such a division still exists in parts of England

Oh, I very much am. There's no way we'll ever be able to sanitize everything to everyone's satisfaction, because there'll never be 100% agreement
about what that is.

We'll address the T&C violations as they're spotted, or brought to our attention. Context is key, as is consensus among the staff.

Anyone looking to be offended will have ample opportunity. Where no offense is intended, likely no action will be taken.

You know, we catch what-for from people who think we're too heavy handed with action, and also from those who think we don't take enough. Frequently,
it's from the same people only the opinion changes dependent upon the subject matter.

Bottom line, don't be a jerk. I know how hard that can be for some people, but it would make life much easier for all of us. We recognize that isn't
everyone's goal.

Heres one, Fanny, in America meaning ones bum, but here in the UK it's a highly offensive slang term (to some) for a womans gentalia, if we are gonna
ban Paki we have to ban fanny.

If I see some Pakistanis on the street, I could say "Theres a bunch of Pakis'" and I won't be being racist, I will be correct, it is not against the
law in the UK, it is frowned upon because a lot of people can't get their heads out of the 20th century, but I doubt the Pakis' will be offended, so
why should the Brits?

And why pick on the word Paki OP? Why not wanker, or tosser, or bollocks? They are deemed offensive words in the UK yet I have seen them crop up in
many a thread without being snipped.

I'm gonna mention this thread to Paki Bobby next time I see him and get his take on it, I know for certain he will laugh and shake his head, and
probably say "But I am a Paki, what's the issue?"

I know some young people of Pakistani origin call themselves 'Paki' and there are some quite odious and outright racists on some of those UK based
Pakistani forums.

But that doesn't alter the fact that the majority of time when the term is used in the UK it is intended in a derogatory manner.

Maybe so but generalising to the point of considering all uses of the term paki as being racist is no different than using the term as a racist
generalization. Unless you have the power to read people's minds, which I doubt, then you shouldn't just go assuming someone is racist simply
becuase they say it. As some have pointed out, Pakistani isn't even a race. I've heard white people being called paki, jew, nigga, , by other white
people. Does that mean those white people who said it are racist? Of course not. Sticks and stones, get over it.

You do realize this is Moderator is not a job do you not? Moderators are members just like the rest of us, with the exception that they do their best
to make this a site worth visiting. They look at context of words being used, not just the words themselves, as there are many words that can be used
discriminate against other people and those same words could also be used for other nondiscriminatory uses.

When an alert is sent, the staff reviews it together and decides whether or not to take action given the context of the issue the warning was brought
about for.

I would post examples but because I don’t want to get flamed for using examples only to use discriminatory terms.

The more you protest against discriminatory words themselves instead of the people purposefully using them in a obvious hateful way, the more power
you give those words to others to use them in the same manner. There should be no reason why words should be not used, words are words, it is the
context of how they are used that makes them insensitive, not the words themselves.

People call other people ignorant for using words that are insensitive, but it is not the words that are insensitive, if used in the correct context,
there is no reason words should not be used, and if used in an insensitive way, it is the user that used them in an insensitive way that should be
held accountable.

I know crakeur fairly well from my time here, and he's straight as a die.

HE doesn't allow anything - the mods, supers, admins and owners come to a consensus based on reasonable discussion.

You should try it sometime...

I agree that the word is offensive to many UK users, but at the same time, we are a minority on this site, and if the word doesn't offend the
majority, perhaps we should look more at our own mental filters and react accordingly when someone from outside the UK uses the word.

Freedom of speech isn't about taking words out of language, it's about finding ways of incorporating them, and has some have stated, context is
everything.

I've made my points in this thread, and for the majority of users it is not a recist word, so I'm gonna leave it there.

Originally posted by woogleuk
Heres one, Fanny, in America meaning ones bum, but here in the UK it's a highly offensive slang term (to some) for a womans gentalia, if we are gonna
ban Paki we have to ban fanny.

?"

edit on 25/2/11 by woogleuk because: (no reason given)

In Australia fanny is also slang for virgina,but it not offensive,most women here refer to their lady parts as their fanny,In America rooting appears
to mean barracking for/supporting,In Oz rooting generally means having sex,or when used as rooted replaces the word f#$ked,Aussie's do not get
offended by Americans using it the way they do,why the hell would we? But then we seem harder to offend the most,
we also find the name Randy funny here as it's rarely used as a name,but means horny,yet again we know it's a name in other countries and don't
get upset about it,

I will try and not use the term paki as i don't want to offend the poms,but really guys the days of the UK being the centre of the universe are long
gone so maybe relax a bit,and get over yourselves,

Originally posted by SKinLaB
If they are from Pakistan, why is that racist calling them a Paki? Do you find it racist to call someone from Britain a Brit, or an Australian a
Aussie, or someone from Afghanistan a Afghani, or someone from the U.S a barbarian?

I can understand if you are calling an Asian a Paki though. Unless they are an Asian from Pakistan.

If a term is used too frequently in a hateful manner it becomes an insult.
Paki is not really racist, because Pakistani is not a race, but, in most situations, it is now an insult.

It's all about intention in the first place, and then accustomed usage.
Call a mouse a gloggle for long enough, and gloggle means mouse.
Use Paki to mean something despicable for long enough, and the word comes to mean something despicable.

Idiot, mongol, dumb, spastic, and retard were all just regular words until usage made them into insults. After they became insults, polite people
avoided using them.

I do believe that, if you filter the word, it would wind up screwing up anything with that word, such as Pakistan, Pakisani etc.

This comment is about filtering in general; I don't care whether or not any particular word is filtered.
Wouldn't it be possible to use spaces before and after words when listing them in the filter, so it was only when the word has a space on each side
it is filtered?

If a term is used too frequently in a hateful manner it becomes an insult.
Paki is not really racist, because Pakistani is not a race, but, in most situations, it is now an insult.

Wow i didn't know Fern Tree Gully was so culturally different than Ringwood,or the rest of Melbourne and Australia for that matter,what are these
"most situations" you speak of ? Please don't give me some crap about the UK either,I'm talking about Oz here,If the word Paki had racist tones(in
Australia) it would not be used in the press/tv/radio in relation to the Pakistani cricket team would it ? i don't recall any news reports of peeps
in Pakistan burning Aussie effigy's because we call them Pakis.do you?
From the Tasmanian Mercury August 2010

Paki, was a legitimate term to name people from the country of Pakistan. The Brits made it into a derogatory term because they intended to deride
those people. What was an OK term became a not OK one because the Brits made it so. So now we all have to accept their derision of a whole
people???

Perhaps its time for the Brits to lose their negativity. They should change, not the rest of us. Being from Pakistan should not have judgment
assigned to it any more than being a yank from America or a Limey from wherever they come from ....

it seems that ats is quite happy allowing the continued use of this word - KNOWING that it is extremely insulting to many people.

here then is a list of other insulting words which you may feel free to use in your threads -
en.wikipedia.org...

just because the word isn't an insult in their own country or they didn't 'really' mean the word in an insulting way, all of these words should be
acceptable to use here? right?

see, if someone told me that a certain word is insulting to a particular group of people, i would not use it anymore. i wouldn't KNOWINGLY want to
offend them, even if unintentionally. i find it sad that so many here would carry on doing so, KNOWING that others find it offensive.

The thing is, in 'real' conversation it is pretty easy to determine the context the word is used in.

I have a couple of very good Sikh friends and occassionally I deliberately call them Paki just to wind them up.
Just a bit of craic between mates.
However, it's not that uncommon to hear people call anyone of Indian sub-continent origin a 'Paki bastard' or a lot worse.
Whether people like it or not, and reasoning is irrelevant, the term 'Paki' has deeply offensive overtones when used in general conversation in the
UK.

And it can be difficult at times to determine context when the word is used in forum's such as this.

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